A Couple Of Odd Couples

Within the last month, Wisconsin appeared NIT bound, UNC's Bill Guthridge had far more foes than friends, and Florida saw an outright SEC title slip away. Now two eight seeds and a five are dancing in Indianapolis with Michigan State, the one team we told you all along would be there.

On the morning of the biggest game of his life, North Carolina's Joseph Forte stepped off the team bus, headphones over his ears, gym bag in one hand, the famous green trainer's bag in the other.

Forte has lugged that damn green bag everywhere--in Hawaii in November, when Carolina's season seemed so promising; on Tobacco Road in late February, when it was unraveling; now at the South Regional final in March, as the Tar Heels were chewing up their bracket, redeeming what had been one of the worst Carolina seasons in, well, pretty much forever.

It's a North Carolina tradition that a freshman is chosen to carry the bag off the team bus. It's hazing in a preppie way. Worthy did it. So did Jordan. This year it was Forte's turn, one of the few moments of humility he has known in a remarkable season.

"You might think he's cocky, but he's just confident," says Tar Heels point guard Ed Cora. "He might boast, and sometimes we just pat him on the butt and ignore him."

Of course, Forte did more than carry the bag. He carried the Tar Heels, who never should have needed so much support. Carolina made history this year in two bittersweet ways. The Heels am the first team to start five McDonald's All-Americans. They also enter the Final Four with more losses (13) than any team in any previous Final Four field.

Forte, Carolina's leading scorer all year, scored 28 points in the South final, a gritty 59-55 win over Tulsa. No other Carolina player was in double figures. Though his outside shot wasn't falling, Forte was the only Tar Heel who could score off the dribble, and he consistently got in the lane and hit runners. That performance came less than 48 hours after he torched Tennessee for 22, leading a frantic comeback that ended in a 74-69 win.

"I didn't want to go home," Forte says. "I shoot the most, so I should make most of my shots and take us to Indianapolis."

Now the eighth-seeded Tar Heels are on their way, making up one-fourth of what has shaped up to be one of the more motley lots ever assembled for a Final Four. The rest of the field:

* Another eight seed also carrying 13 losses in Wisconsin.

* Another young, somewhat underachieving team just finding its stride in fifth-seeded Florida.

* And the lone remaining survivor of the tourney carnage, No. 1 seed Michigan State--THE SPORTING NEWS' pick to win the whole darn thing way back when--even before practice started in October.

Of the latter three, the ticket to Indianapolis has been defense.

Wisconsin, the eighth seed in the West, slowed the game down and used a prickly double-team in the low post to bamboozle LSU's Stromile Swift and Jabari Smith and then used its never-ending patience to stymie Big Ten rival Purdue.

Meanwhile, Michigan State, also in true Big Ten style, played its usual hellacious halfcourt defense in beating Iowa State, setting up what should be a bruising matchup Saturday.

In the sexier half of the bracket, Florida took a different approach: Blessed with superior talent and depth, it used its fullcourt press to wear down Duke and then Oklahoma State.

Actually, even the Tar Heels got into the defensive swing, holding Tulsa to 55 points in getting coach Bill Guthridge to his second Final Four in three seasons.

The result: A Final Four with the lowest seeds since seeding began in the tournament in 1979. Though the 2000 tournament has been one of the most freewheeling ever, some fans are miffed that the top seeds were mowed down.

At the South Regional in Austin, one clever fan hung a banner from the upper deck that was quickly confiscated. It said:

I paid $90 for these tickets. Where is:

Cincinnati?

Buckeyes ?

Stanford?

The first letter of each team spelled CBS, whose executives were probably doing cartwheels when the Tar Heels-a marquee name-emerged from the South.

But can North Carolina carry its run past Florida's 94 feet of pressure? And can either of those teams handle the knock-down, drag-out, gridiron style that defines the other side of the bracket?

First, what has sparked Carolina's improbable run?

After the loss to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, Tar Heel players say Guthridge became more active in practice, becoming more of a stickler for detail. Guthridge doesn't curse, and he rarely raises his voice, prompting many to wonder if he was too nice a guy to be a head coach.

"It's been good," says reserve Max Owens. "Coach Guthridge has been raising his voice more, stopping practice more, moving players around."

For Tar Heels fans, the Guthridge situation has become as complicated as the Middle East. Before North Carolina opened the tournament against Missouri, the program had reached a critical junction: There was a sizeable contingent of fans and boosters who wouldn't have been too sad to see a first-round loss, further ratcheting the pressure on coach Gut, whose five-year contract is to be employed in the athletic department, not necessarily as coach.

But what a coaching job he has done of late.

Tennessee entered its Sweet 16 game thinking it had the perfect solution for eliminating North Carolina: 1) Limit center Brendan Haywood's touches. 2) Keep point guard Cota out of the lane. 3) Make the game a war--make it physical. 4) Play up tempo.

Tennessee had the talent to beat Carolina but focused too much on stopping Haywood, whose 28-point outburst against Missouri turned out to be an anomaly, not a harbinger.

Tulsa had a better plan but not the size to pull it off--and Tulsa didn't hit open shots, either. The Golden Hurricane didn't double-team Haywood and rarely fronted him. So he was forced to put the ball on the floor and shoot 8- and 10-footers rather than catch lobs from Cota. The 70-percent shooter finished with eight points on 4-of-10 shooting.

"We just tried to push him off the block," says Tulsa assistant coach John Phillips. "We only fronted him when they reversed the ball, and he came across the lane getting deep position."

Tulsa's problem: When guards Greg Harrington and Tony Heard were guarding Forte, they gave up about 4 inches.

Carolina's weaknesses are its thin bench and its vulnerability to speed. Tulsa tried to pressure the ball and play an up-tempo game, but foul trouble handcuffed the Golden Hurricane. Eric Coley, the team's heart, played only 24 minutes because of fouls.

"When we got in foul trouble, we couldn't go to our speed game," says Tulsa coach Bill Self.

Florida won't have that problem. What makes its press so effective is its number of talented bodies. Outstanding teams such as Iowa State, Duke and Arizona all fell because of depth problems, but Florida coach Billy Donovan plays 10 players before the first 10 minutes of a game are up.

"You attack their press, and you score points," Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton says, "but what happens is they finally wear you down if you don't have the same number of soldiers. Your legs go and you start missing shots, you don't execute as well, and you don't block out."

How good is the Florida press? Oklahoma State faced two pressing teams in the tournament, Florida and Pepperdine.

"Florida has 10 times better athletes than Pepperdine does," says Oklahoma State point guard Doug Gottlieb. "Pepperdine is athletic, but Florida ... this is a different animal."

But Florida can be taken out. Oklahoma State's ability to throw over the Gators' press left the Sooners with wide open shots at the other end, and remember Butler--Butler!--almost derailed this Final Four trip in the first round. That's because Butler played a buttermilk attack to offset the Gators' caffeinated one. North Carolina will have to slow the game down as much as it can.

And it has just the player to do that in Cota, who's now in his third Final Four. OSU assistant coach Sean Sutton says a point guard must know when to attack but also when to pull back and make the Gators idle a bit.

"They try to speed you up and make you beat it off the dribble," Sean Sutton, once a point guard himself, said. "They are very good at getting guys into speed dribbles. When that happens, guys tend to speed up their games and throw the ball away. They try to wear you down to where it gets to the last six, seven minutes of the game and then try and decide it there, when the other team is exhausted and they are still fresh."

Whether Cota can maneuver UNC past the Gators or Florida's depth prevails, neither will be prepared for what will come at them on Monday.

No one in their right mind had Wisconsin making the Final Four. Now the Badgers' dream run has run into its biggest nightmare--a Spartans team that has beaten them five straight times dating back to last season.

A win is not completely out of the question for Wisconsin, if for no other reason than winning a sixth in a row is easier said than done. The junior-laden Badgers fear no one and frustrate the heck out of everyone. But the one thing the Spartans have that Wisconsin can't match is the Spartans' senior leadership.

Two nights before the win over Iowa State, the Spartans trailed Syracuse, 34-24, at halftime, and worst of all, it seemed the Spartans weren't even trying. That got point guard Mateen Cleaves upset.

Coach Tom Izzo had been a little slow in getting back to the locker room at halftime, but when he got there, he found Cleaves, who was shooting 0-for-6 at the time, unleashing upon his teammates a stream of obscenities vulgar enough to make a pirate blush. Izzo said nothing, let Cleaves finish his tirade and then drew up some defensive changes and a couple of offensive adjustments.

Michigan State outscored the Orangemen, 51-24, in the second half, including a 17-0 run to finish the game.

And Cleaves is just one of the team's generals.

Leading Iowa State, 62-61, with 2:17 to play in Saturday's Midwest Regional final, Izzo called a 30-second time out. "I got an idea," Moms Peterson said. Izzo's 30 seconds were running down, but he did not speak.

"Let's run the screen and re-screen," Peterson said. "I think it can work."

Without saying a word, Izzo quickly drew up the play, which would provide a high screen for Peterson at the 3-point line, then a second screen to leave him open on the baseline. The play worked perfectly: Cleaves took the inbound pass and flung a 15-foot alley-oop pass to Peterson, who finished with a dunk that brought the pro-Spartans crowd into a painfully loud ovation. That was the end of the Cyclones.

"Give (Peterson) all the credit for that one," Izzo says. "Before you pat me on the back, pat him on the back. All I did was draw it up with my little pen. These guys came up with it."

Such is the relationship between Izzo and his players. He is comfortable going into a huddle and leaving the talking and the X's and O's to Peterson or Cleaves or A.J. Granger or anybody with a uniform and an opinion. It's a unique situation, but it is a reflection of the Spartans' maturity and the ability of their coach to nurture maturity. It is the most important reason behind Michigan State's success.

"Some people might look at it like the inmates running the asylum or that I don't do much coaching," Izzo says. "But I'm just part of this team. We all have the same goal. If these guys have something to say, I'll listen."

That sort of senior leadership will make the Spartans tough to beat, for Wisconsin or anyone else. These guys have been there before, having won three straight Big Ten titles and having made a trip to the Final Four last year.

The big question for Wisconsin is whether its newfound offense (up nearly five points a game in the tourney) can help it--finally--get the best of the Spartans after three fruitless tries already this season.

It's clear the Badgers' physical defense can handle the Spartans. In two meetings in February and one in the Big Ten tournament, Michigan State scored 61 points, 59 points and a season low 55 against UW.

So what is it about the defense of this gawky crew of unknown Midwesterners that makes them such a thorn?

* Although not nearly as experienced as Michigan State, this is a veteran crew of juniors and seniors who are smart and savvy, willing to sacrifice everything for a team that hasn't wavered on coach Dick Bennett's old-school methods, even after a 13-12 start to the season. That forward Mark Vershaw, the team's top scorer, also leads the team in assists typifies everything about the program.

* The Badgers clog the lane at all times. They play defense from the inside-out, with one player pressuring the ball and four in the paint. That often leads to more than a few foul calls, but there are plenty of bodies to spread those fouls around. The rotation runs 10 deep, with Maurice Linton, Andy Kowske, Mark Vershaw and Charlie Wills close enough in skill that they're almost interchangeable in the front court.

"We should have come back with our football pads," Purdue forward Mike Robinson said. "It's not a basketball game against them."

* Mike Kelley is the consummate point guard--for the Badgers. Not exactly a hot commodity as a high school senior, he has proved to be the perfect candidate to run Wisconsin's methodical screen first, screen second, screen third offense. When he's not passing or passing, The Mitten is racking up steals galore--"It's uncanny how smart his hands are," says Linton--all but shutting down the opponent's point guard.

Even the offensive drills have a defensive tilt in Madison. The Badgers have a drill called 10 Pass. There are three players on offense and three on defense, and the offense must complete 10 passes without fumbling or turning it over. Scoring is not an option.

So how do you break down this beast of a defense? Patience, passing, patience and more patience.

Peterson & Co. can throw their athleticism right out the window. Fresno State tried to survive on theirs in the first round and lost, 66-56. Ditto for Arizona and LSU, which together just barely broke 100 points against the Badgers. The best way to counter is to play an offense similar to Wisconsin's: Use screens to break down the Badgers and take advantage of a defender losing track of his player.

After falling victim to UW three times this season, Purdue forward Rodney Smith offers this advice:

1. Spread the floor.

2. Reverse the ball once or twice before trying to take it in the lane.

3. Have great help-side defense.

4. Have your big men show on all screens.

5. Block out.

Unfortunately for the Badgers, no team knows that better than the Spartans.

Though it's nearly impossible to beat a team four times in a season, Michigan State is more than capable. The Spartans have too much talent, they won't be spooked by the Badgers' defense like Arizona and LSU were and they have more options on offense than Purdue.

Tulsa spread the floor against Carolina but was too small for the Heels. Florida has what Tulsa didn't: bodies and height. Though Cota will navigate the Florida press, the Gators will wear down Carolina and then run away from the fired Heels in the game's last 10 minutes.

The championship? An exhilarating matchup. Two different styles, two different teams. Michigan State's leadership--three seniors in the starting lineup--will be too much for the youthful Gators.

Michigan State 79, Florida 72.

Steve Harrison is a free-lance writer in Fort Lauderdale. Sean Deveney, Anna M. Jones and Kyle Veltrop contributed.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group